At the 9th ECAS Conference on African Futures in Germany, I participated in the panel Econ3 ‘‘Towards decolonizing African development futures: the place of indigenous knowledge’’ as author and presented the work on ‘‘Exploring desirable nature futures for the M’mbelwa Ngoni Kingdom of Malawi’’. The work built on the Nature Future Framework to envision desirable people and nature futures in the M’mbelwa Ngoni Kingdom of Malawi. Five visions and three artworks were developed and presented to the audience. Key findings were that it was difficult to imagine desirable futures without referring to pre-colonial times.
Attending this largest single, international and most visible conference was an opportunity for me to meet researchers and highlight actions under Future Ecosystems for Africa project. From 31 May to 3 June 2023, there were 1460 papers presented over 245 panels and roundtables. Across the various roundtables and panels, I attended, there were common messages articulated as follows:
- African Futures need to be redefined to respond to the global challenge poses by the Anthropocene era.
- There is not a single future for Africa. There are many roads to take, many paths to follow, each of which comes with its own uncertainties, expectations, anxieties, anticipations, and speculations determined and undetermined by pasts and presents.
- People are future-makers and there is a need to engage them on a daily basis whether as scientists, inventors, artists, children, mothers and fathers. There is a need to decolonise power and allow Africans to lead future discussion.
- There is a need to decolonize not just of thinking, but also of acting and of ‘‘thinking about thinking’’ and about what constitutes proper knowing. Rethinking how knowledge is transmitted through generations is key in shaping African Futures.